River Valley

Lansing VFW Auxiliary #5981 is holding a Soup & Sandwich Supper to honor Vietnam Veterans Thursday, March 30 from 3-7 p.m. at Immaculate Conception Church Hall, located at 648 Main Street, Lansing. A special ceremony to commemorate National Vietnam Veterans Day, which is March 29, and to honor the Veterans and Widows of Vietnam Veterans, will begin at 5 p.m. Featured in that honoring will be Lansing’s own Don Peters, the one surviving brother of five brothers in the Clem and Helen Peters family who served as Marines in Vietnam. All Veterans are invited to attend.
 

by Julie Berg-Raymond

During its regular meeting Monday, February 20, the Lansing City Council set a public hearing date for the Maximum Property Levy. That public hearing will be held Monday, March 6 at 7 p.m. in Lansing City Hall.

IOWA GREAT PLACES
Andrew Boddicker presented the first full draft of the objectives and projects that will be listed as part of Lansing’s application for an Iowa Great Places designation through the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs. After a brief discussion, the council approved having Mayor Melissa Hammell write a letter of support for the City’s application. The final vote on the Vision Plan is scheduled for March 6.

Ferryville Vision and Promotion Board is hosting its monthly Soup and Salad Supper at Ferryville Village Hall Thursday, March 9. Doors open at 5 p.m. and the meal will be served until 7 p.m. or until food runs out.

All of the freewill donation proceeds will help fund upgrades to the bathrooms at the Village Hall. For more information, watch for advertisements in The Standard and Northeast Iowa Extra.
 

The 13th Annual Eagle Watching Day is scheduled for this Saturday, March 4 in Ferryville, WI at the Village Community Center located on State Highway 35, Great River Road. This program is sponsored by the Ferryville Tourism Council, co-sponsored by Friends of Pool 9, and free to the public.

Event activities are from 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m., with doors opening at 9 a.m. Returning to the program is the Decorah Raptor Resource Project Eagle Cam organization presenting at 12:30 p.m. on “Eagles of the Mississippi River”. John Howe and Amy Reis of the Raptor Resource Project and their team tell about eagle families and how they fly the Mississippi River Valley.

There are many eagle nests in the area, including a new one just south of Ferryville and another new nest on Hwy. 82 to Lansing. The Pool 9 section has more nests than in any other part of the Mississippi River.

The Lansing Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Auxiliary Post #5981 and the New Albin VFW Auxiliary Post #5603 recently selected the winners of their Annual Elementary School Essay Contest. Students in third through fifth grades at New Albin Elementary School participated in the contest. The top entries from each grade level are pictured in the surrounding submitted photos, including information about any of their results at the District level of competition.

Ferryville Vision and Promotion Board (FVPB) announces the return of its Sweetheart Pancake Breakfast scheduled for this Saturday, February 25 from 8-11 a.m. in the Ferryville Village Hall. The breakfast was last held in 2020.

All of the profits will be used by the Ferryville Vision and Promotion Board for its annual projects. This includes the barrel planters that are placed throughout the village and the plantings at River View Park from May through October. For more information, follow the organization on its Facebook page at facebook.com/ferryvillewi.
 

The New Albin City Council is seeking input from the public on the possibility of installing speed cameras within its city limits along State Highway 26 that runs through the community. As a supplementary source of speed limit enforcement in light of the limited police presence in the community of New Albin, the cameras would reportedly track traffic speeds and result in the mailing of speeding tickets when vehicles are clocked at 10 or more miles an hour over the posted speed limit, with a majority of that fine revenue being received by the City of New Albin.

Lesya Ryzhenkova and her family earned a reputation for their Ukrainian cuisine last year in a free-will donation fundraiser for the Ukraine war effort in March of 2022, shortly after the beginning of the Russian conflict with the family’s native country. Offering specialties such as Varenyky and Chicken Kyiv, residents of the Driftless region enjoyed the offerings and wondered when they might be able to enjoy them again.

From that demand evolved Ryzhenkova’s new venture to provide weekly carryout meals through her “Facebook Restaurant” called Ukrainian Village. With the new meal service launching Sunday, March 12, Ryzhenkova and her family will hold a Ukrainian Day and Open House at Lansing Office Works and Kitchen Works Sunday, February 26 where visitors can sample a variety of these specialties and note their favorites to prepare for their orders in March.

by Julie Berg-Raymond

During its regular meeting Monday, February 6, the Lansing City Council approved a City of Lansing Parks Board request to apply for a Wellmark Grant related to “environments to be physically active in” for 2023, with matching funds up to $10,000 to be provided by the City of Lansing. The funding would be used to resurface and update the City’s sports courts.

“The budget is about $40,000 and it’s a 50/50 match,” Parks and Recreation Board Chairperson Maryann Baldwin noted. “We’ll request half that from Wellmark. Ten thousand dollars of the match funds will come from the City and we’ll be looking for additional contributions from private donors and fundraising for the other $10,000.”

The council also approved a request by the Water and Sewer Department to submit a grant application for water/wastewater generators through the Allamakee County Community Foundation Grant Program, with that grant application due February 24.

All are invited to a Soup and Salad Supper red table cloth event this Thursday, February 9 at the Ferryville Village Hall from 5-7 p.m. Freewill donation proceeds will go 100% to the upgrades being planned and completed at the Ferryville Village Hall. Bathroom renovations have been the first priority for these upgrades, and the work is already progressing.

For additional information, see the advertisement on Page 4 in this week’s edition of The Standard.